Succeeding in My Own Shoes by Matthew

Succeeding in My Own Shoes by Matthew - December 2016 Scholarship Essay

One of the hallmark experiences of my high school career has come from my time on the Tri-Ship Board. The Tri-Ship Board is an all-male service based club that raises over $25,000 annually for scholarships for graduating students from New Trier. The board is composed of 35 appointed members and five elected officers that meet every day during the last period of the day. Officers are determined by the votes of over 1000 rising junior and senior boys. The passion and dedication of all of the members creates an ecstatic environment every day. It truly is a brotherhood. Some of my best friends were people that I met within this club. I got to know people that I most likely never would have gotten to meet, especially in a school with over 4000 students. My participation in the club, whether it be collecting cans for our annual canned food drive, selling Christmas trees in our lot or cooking steak sandwiches at football games, has helped define my time at New Trier. Since my Freshman year, I always knew that I wanted to run for President. The upperclassmen in the club were all so polished, professional and thought of in high regards that they inspired me to commit to moving the club forward.
During my junior year I was the Junior Class Officer, the only non-senior elected official. Being the only incumbent officer running for the presidency, I thought that my path to victory was already paved. I was flat out wrong. It turns out that one of the other candidates was one of my best friends. As election day creeped closer, I started to grow increasingly frustrated with my friend. He bought board members food in exchange for their board vote. He created an election t-shirt and gave it away 30 minutes prior to the in-board election for another vote. He tried to get under my skin. Worst of all, he started to employ some of the friends from our group to get people to vote for him. It was a truly awful feeling.
I went home every day upset and angry that something I cared so much about was slipping away from me. I had two options: maintain good character and integrity or begin to play dirty. The best evidence of which path I chose can be found in an answer to a simple question: “Who should I vote for?” I was asked this question numerous times, sometimes by friends and other times by people I didn’t know. Most of the people who posed this question knew the nature of the election and were anticipating a foul response from me. They wanted me to blow up. They wanted me to take shots at my friend. Did I ever want to burst out like this? Yes. But did I. No. My answer was simple but effective in nature: “You should vote for whoever you think will best run our club.”
The question allowed me to speak about what I really stood for. It exposed that I valued being the type of person that friends and classmates respect. It exposed that I was aware that my actions were a reflection of the club and all our members. It exposed my confidence in my contributions to the club up to this point. I knew that I would not feel satisfied in accomplishing my goals unless I succeeded by being myself. When I eventually got elected, I was so much more satisfied knowing that I had stayed true to my ethics.
This election was not significant to me because of the result. It was significant to me because of how I earned the result. At times, I thought I was defeated; that never changed my approach. Sometimes in life, doing the right thing doesn’t always pay off. And I was going to be okay with that even if I was not elected to the position. As I grow older, I continue to learn that I am a product of all my own decisions. If I let someone else influence my decisions now, I may find myself being a type of person that I don’t want to be in the future.